Mobile game players spending more than ever, research claims

Paying mobile game players in the US are on average spending more money than ever on titles, according to new research.

US data analytics firm Superdata said in its monthly digital games report report that although spending overall on mobile had declined slightly from last month, the average revenue per paying user had broken through $12 for the first time.

This is despite overall market contraction of five per cent month-over-month, with the US games market generating $832 million in total sales across all categories.

As well as a rise in the average paying user spending on mobile, sales of downloadable content for PC grew nine per cent to $136 million month-over-month.

The total userbase for free-to-play MMOs in the US grew to just under 46 million, although the report claimed overall earnings had dropped.

Pay-to-Play MMOs struggled however, with a decline of under 900,000 subscribers in the last three months. This is likely in part due to Activision’s recent announcement that 1.3 million subscribers had left its flagship MMO World of Warcraft.

The social games sector also continued to experience a decline in users, losing an estimated 2.7 million monthly active users compared to the previous month. Average paying user revenue grew slightly however to just above $33, likely impacted by the loss of a significant number of consumers overall.